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Japanese Terms: konbanwa (good evening) daijobu (Are you all right? or It'll be all right) oyasuminasai (good night) demo (but) ano (um) edo (um) kirei (beautiful).

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Awakenings Ch. 1

He looked down at the floating noodles in his bowl. Just a few left. The chopsticks in his right hand faltered as images flashed through his mind. In kindergarten, he saw her standing apart from the crowd of kids throwing dirt and rocks at him. In class, her shuriken aim wasn't very good so she stayed and practiced after everyone else had left. The medicine she had handed to him after his fight with Kiba and Akamaru. Then the fight with Neji, her eyes filled with determination to fight against all odds, putting her life on the line to live up to her potential, to become a better person. The night they bumped into each other at the summer festival.

---

"Oy! Hinata-san! This festival is great isn't it!" His hands were filled with goodies purchased from all of the vendors. His fat froggy purse, Gama-chan, stuck out of his pocket, and a fried squid on a stick hung out of the corner of his mouth.

"Good evening Naruto-kun," Hinata said shyly from under her dark, ink-blue bangs.

"Are you here alone?"

"Yes," she blushed.

"Me, too! Do you want to ride the roller coaster with me?"

"Okay..." Hinata's whole face turned bright red.

Naruto had wondered why her face suddenly turned so red. Well, she's always been really shy. He brushed the thought aside. He pulled out his fat froggy purse and paid the ride vendor. They spent the whole night trying out all the different rides and buying lots of junk food. He was still puzzled by why her face turned red every time he spoke to her. After the festival, he walked her home.

"Naruto-kun...I.."

"Eh?" He looked at her and watched as she looked ahead and took a deep breath. Her eyes closed and she exhaled slowly. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. The two of them stopped at the corner of an intersection in a residential area. A few street lights dotted the crossing paths. The rest of the scene was bathed in moonlight.

"When I was growing up, my father was very strict on me because I was the heir to the family's power, but I couldn't live up to his expectations. I tried to train very hard, but I was a failure. Though I kept trying, I didn't believe in myself. Then I saw you in class. You kept failing, too, but you kept going, you believed in yourself. I wanted to be like you, even though I was a failure."

"Hinata-san, you're not a failure. You fought Neji well. Most people would not have lasted as long as you did."

"I still lost though. Demo, I think I can finally be more confident because I tried my best. Thank you for being a good example for me."

"Ah, Hinata, I didn't do anything. Hey, maybe you could challenge Neji to a fight again. I'll help you train!"

"Naruto-kun, arigato!"

---

“One more time Hinata-san!” Naruto cried as he formed the seal for the kage-no-bushin, a ninja technique that allowed him to make multiple solid clones of himself. They had been training for weeks at a ridiculous pace and intensity on top of their regular training. Naruto was glad for the chance to practice battling against the legendary Hyuuga Byakuugan, a technique that not only allowed the user to see far distances in a 360 degree range, it also made chakra flow visible and thus more attackable. Though Naruto had all ready won against Hinata’s older cousin, Neji, who is stronger than Hinata, her Byakuugan still challenges him enough for it to be a great workout. Outside of his training with Hinata, he was still learning new techniques from Jiraiya, one of the strongest ninjas in the world, who has decided to hang around Konoha for awhile and train Naruto. The 5th Hokage, Tsunade, has taken an interest in Hinata, and Hinata has been training with her as well.

As his image split into twenty clones of himself, Naruto looked at Hinata who had just squatted into a stance with her right foot behind her and her left foot out in front. The nerves and veins around her eyes bulged and pulsed as she initiated her byakuugan. He smirked a bit. With his clones, she can’t tell which one is the real him because his chakra is evenly distributed across the board. He ran with his clones. As they approached her a number of them jumped to different heights in the air to attack her from different angles. He saw her eyes scanning the crowd and then look straight at him. So different from the Hinata he once knew in school who hid away all the time, and yet the same exact person. Her eyes were so full of determination, so full of the desire to become better. Hinata’s upper body twisted a bit as her hand came up for a strike, fingers poised together, and as her body moved in graceful and fluid motions and her eyes flashed with the utter passion and frenzy of battle, a thought struck Naruto: Kirei…

Hinata scanned the horde of Narutos that came at her. She saw them leaping in at her from all different directions. Each of the chakras flowed identical to one another. Then she saw it, the source of all the chakra pulsing slightly larger than all of the others, running straight at her head on. In that moment, all of Hinata’s training from infancy up until the past few weeks took over and her body moved in utter symphony to the pulsating matter around her. With one graceful swipe, she zoomed past all of the clones and hit Naruto dead center in the chest. Naruto flew backwards, all of his clones popped into clouds of smoke around him, and he hit the floor sending up sprays of dirt and grass and puffs of dust into the air.

For a second, Hinata was lost in the finish of her attack, and then her face fell into a look of complete horror, and she ran to Naruto. He lay unnaturally still. With her byakuugan, she saw that his chakra flow had completely gone haywire and his chakra source, the one that she had picked out from all of the clones, appeared to be dispersing. The severity of the situation drove her past the point of absolute panic and into a realm of dissociation. She felt as if her mind and body began to act on its own, as if she was a mere spectator, but she was moving and controlling herself at the same time. She was on her knees in no time and placing her hands gently but firmly on Naruto’s chest, one hand on top of the other in a triangular formation. She began.

---

The rays of sunlight danced upon his feet as his eyes groggily opened. He squinted at first at the brightness of midday, and then sat himself up slowly propped on his elbows. At the edge of his bed of white sheets and blanket lay a mass of short, ink-blue hair with a pair of arms in thick jacket sleeves wrapped around it.

“Hinata-san?”

The head suddenly popped up and looked at him with wide, pale eyes full of shock. Then they began to well-up with tears.

“Naruto-kun!” Hinata shot forward and did something she never would have dreamed she’d have the guts to do—she hugged Naruto.

“Gomenasai…” came out muffled from where she had buried her face in his shoulder while she shook, hiccupped, and sobbed.

“Hinata-san, what happened? Why are you crying?” He reached one hand around to pat her on the back in an attempt to comfort her.

She backed away from him, grabbing a handkerchief from her pocket and started cleaning her face off.

“I’m sorry, I’m just so happy you’re okay…Are you okay? How do you feel?”

“I feel okay…a little stiff…how long have I been lying here?”

“Three days.”

“What happened?”

“We were training again…” Her voice trailed off in a sort of faint squeal; it seemed she would break down again at any moment.

Naruto jogged his memory. He remembered the kage no bushin, running towards her, observing her intensely as she executed her attack…his cheeks turned red. Now it was his turn to be speechless.

Hinata covered her face and began sobbing again.

“Ne, Hinata, it was my fault, I was being careless, I was…uh…distracted…”

His cheeks burned bright red again. Luckily she can’t really see me right now, he thought randomly.

“Hey, what’s all the commotion in here?” The 5th Hokage strode into the room. In came a troupe of genins (plus Shikamaru), Kakashi Sensei, Iruka Sensei, and Jiraiya. Sakura ran to the bed. “Naruto! Daijobu deska? Your face is all red!”

“Hahaha,” Naruto laughed nervously, “I’m just embarrassed having all of you see me like this.”

“You have Hinata to thank for being alive,” Tsunada said as she put a reassuring hand on Hinata’s shoulder.

All of them looked at her in amazement except for Hinata who was still undone. Apparently this was news to them.

“I’ve never seen anyone do such chakra healing before. Hinata-chan seems to have discovered her talent for extreme ninja medicine.”

All of their eyes grew wide. Tsunade, the 5th Hokage, was famous around the world for her amazing medical ninja abilities. To get a compliment from her on ninja healing techniques was unheard of.

Hinata was still crying, though she seemed to have regained a certain level of composure and was only weeping weakly at this point.

“Naruto’s chakra had been reversed in some parts and blocked in others. Apparently her strike to the source of his chakra had sent shock waves throughout his whole system. Hinata was able to heal the entire system.”

They all looked at Hinata in disbelief. Neji looked on with an especially curious eye.

“Ah, heheheheh, I was being careless. It was my fault for underestimating Hinata-san,” Naruto laughed with one hand behind his head. “Demo, Hinata-san, how did you know which one of my clones was the real me?”

“I saw…sniffle…I saw the difference between the real charka core and the clone cores,” breathed Hinata as she wiped her face for the umpteenth time.

Neji’s eyes grew wide. Hinata had always been thought to have inherited only a weaker version of the byakuugan in their family. Neji had always been thought of as the born prodigy of the family who had inherited more than the full strength of the byakuugan bloodline limit. He wondered if they had it wrong all along as he looked at his cowering cousin. He tilted his head as if it would help him see her better. But…she looks the same to me…he thought as he examined the furrowed brow, the hands clutching the handkerchief in front of her, her eyes hidden under her bangs. He smiled. If she is better, then the promise they made to fight next month would be interesting indeed.

---

She’s always been there. Naruto looked again at the bowl of ramen noodles soaking up the soup. His lips pursed as a thought ran through his head. His eyes suddenly flashed with a look of resolve. He slurped up the rest of the noodles and soup, paid for his meal, and ran off in the direction of the Hyuuga mansion.